


One

by F-117 Nighthawk (F117_Nighthawk)



Series: Don't Waste It [1]
Category: Avengers: Endgame - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, Self-Reflection, Self-Sacrifice, There is one movie I have ever cried at in my life, Tony Stark Has A Heart, it was this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-09 05:52:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18632122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/F117_Nighthawk/pseuds/F-117%20Nighthawk
Summary: Don’t waste it. Don’t waste your life, Stark.





	One

**Author's Note:**

> There is only one movie I have ever cried at in my life.  
> I cried _three times_
> 
> I wrote most of this at three AM after I watched Iron Man while eating a giant bowl of ice cream and being emotionally unstable. It is a rambling mess.

Tony stared at Strange, at the one finger he was holding up. 

_ One. _

One future where they won. One where it all turned out alright in the end. 

He stared at the gauntlet nestled on Thanos’s hand. Titanium-gold nanobots clustered around the six stones, holding them in place.

He knew how they won. 

Thanos grinned at him, a cruel, evil smile that promised pain and death, and moved his fingers into position. Tony  _ lunged,  _ the site of Peter turning into ashes burned into his eyelids, the fear of losing them all again, of losing Pepper,  _ Morgan,  _ driving him forward, driving him faster than the suit had ever managed before to  _ grab— _

Thanos stared at him as he realized Tony’s hands were preventing him from moving his fingers. He growled and punched, throwing Tony off him. “You  _ fool.  _ I am inevitable.” Tony merely smirked. 

He snapped. 

He snapped and nothing happened. Tony relished the look of confusion as he raised his right gauntlet and waggled his fingers. All six Infinity Stones melted into view as he ordered the nanobots he’d stolen from Thanos’s gauntlet to lock them into place.

The power was coursing through him already, too much to handle and oh god it  _ hurt  _ but he couldn’t stop, he couldn’t, not while he had the Stones in his hand. He could stop this all right now, prevent further bloodshed and pain.

_ One.  _ One future where they won. One where it all turned out alright in the end. 

Tony remembered one phrase from very very long ago:  _ Don’t waste it. Don’t waste your life, Stark. _

Tony Stark would have never done the things he’d done since the cave. But Iron Man? He’d tried every day to fulfil the promise he’d made Yinsen all those years ago. He’d stopped weapons production. He’d focused on clean energy and medical advancements. He had Pepper, and Morgan, and Rhodey, and FRIDAY and Dum-E and U. He’d worked to form the Avengers, in all their forms, into something that would actually help. A suit of armor around the world.

But in the end, the Avengers only had one suit of armor.

_ One.  _ One future where they won. One where it all turned out alright in the end. 

Tony Stark would have never managed it. But Iron Man?

He took a deep breath, pushed past the pain coursing through him to give the purple bastard one last smirk. Iron Man didn’t waste his life, and if this was how they won, then so be it.

“I  _ am _ Iron Man.”

He snapped. 

**Author's Note:**

> I was already tearing up when Tony fucking _snapped_ and then Rhodey and Peter and Pepper came up and then I started crying and it took all of my energy to not start bawling in the theatre when Pepper threw the wreath with the original arc reactor casing into the water and I’m.  
> F u c k.


End file.
